For the first time in the era of presidential term limits, we now have a president who is both a lame duck but also incredibly free to do whatever he wants to leave behind an impressive legacy by which he can be remembered. Will he avail himself of that opportunity?
A Low Bar He Can Scramble Beneath
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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A week ago, Trump said he could end the war in the Ukraine in one day. Now he says Russia are losing, and losing badly, and if Putin doesn’t withdraw from the Ukraine immediately, Russia will be destroyed.
He got Netanyahu to agree to a ‘ceasefire’, only the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) are still shooting, both in Ghaza and the West Bank, just not at quite the intensity as before the ‘ceasefire’. And Netanyahu said he only agreed to the ‘ceasefire’ until 4 February unless Hamas agree to a surrender on Netanyahu’s terms.
So it looks like very little will change, except for new wars against Iran and the PRC.
Re: “Russia (is) losing, and losing badly, and if Putin doesn’t withdraw from the Ukraine immediately, Russia will be destroyed.”
First of all, it’s Ukraine, not Russia, that is losing badly.
Second, what a strange thing for “Putin’s bitch” to tell his master. 🙂
Given your other mentions, it looks like Trump’s legacy could be, at worst, the smoking ruins of a once-pleasant planet, or at best, the smoking ruins of a once-pleasant country–this one.
There’s a lot of low bars to go around. Politically, I see that the left is still failing to get through the perceptual filter that surrounds Trump. When he was signing the executive orders in front of the crowd? If you were watching with the sound on and not busily scrolling through your SocMed feeds, you heard the crowd member who shouted, “Can I have a pen?”
Later, a friend of mine disapprovingly disapproved (with disapproval) of Trump’s throwing pens into the crowd as not being how a president acts. Once again, Trump showed that he understands the process on a whole ‘nother level: he threw the pens into the crowd, not to please the New York Times readership or the Rachel Maddow set, but because he saw the symbolism and value of tossing the pens into the crowd. Have you watched those signing ceremonies? Where the president takes a separate pen for each individual letter? And where do those pens go? They go to the Select. To the high-level “important” people. The “worthy.” I bet that Getting a Pen is right up there with Being Mentioned in Doonesbury for the insider crowd.
Remember grade school? A 100 on a paper meant a sticker. 90 and above was just a gold star. Above 80? The seppuku-inducing shame of a smiley face. It’s the same thing with politics. Greedy kids coveting trinkets. What’s the NEXT president going to do? Return to the “ceremony” of rewarding high-level lackeys with pens? The magic’s gone. Some of the dumb kids who can’t crack 75 have them. They’re junk now. Trump has simultaneously made the pens cool and made them garbage. The next president? He’ll probably hand out the pens to onlookers from the Masses, Unwashed. Or just sign the orders with a single pen and leave it at that. But Trump has set the new paradigm for pens. It’s small, and it’s yuge.
The left still doesn’t understand how he does it.
Ted, trumpster fire should be flabbier. Also, your last 2 pieces haven’t posted in GoComics.